If the Ramsey County attorney charges Jeffery Trevino in the disappearance of his wife, the case could join a small number of homicides in Minnesota prosecuted with no body.

"It's not easy to prove a murder without a body, but it can be done," said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, whose office has prosecuted two homicides without a body, one successfully.

Twenty years ago, Robert Guevara was tried in Dakota County on charges of murder, kidnapping and rape in the 1992 disappearance of Corrine Erstad, a 5-year-old girl from Inver Grove Heights whose body was never found.

Guevara was acquitted. His defense attorney J. Anthony Torres, said his case didn't rely on adequacy of physical evidence but turned on the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses.

Samantha Heiges, 21, of Coon Rapids gave birth to a girl in May 2005, then drowned the newborn in the bathtub of her Burnsville apartment.

Fast forward to 2008 in Dakota County. Samantha Heiges was convicted of killing her newborn, who is believed buried under tons of waste at an Inver Grove Heights landfill.

There was a big difference: Heiges confessed, while Guevara never admitted guilt, Backstrom said.

In St. Paul, the evidence in the Trevino case hasn't been laid out yet. Police arrested Trevino, 39, on suspicion of homicide Tuesday, Feb. 26, and he remained Wednesday in the Ramsey County jail.

The county attorney's office was expected to decide by Thursday morning whether to file charges. If he is not charged, Trevino would be released from jail later in the day.

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Trevino called police about 9 a.m. Friday to report his wife, Kira, was missing. He said she hadn't showed up for work that day at Delia's, a Mall of America clothing store, said Sgt. Paul Paulos, St. Paul police spokesman. Her car was found at the mall.

Police searched the couple's home in St. Paul on Monday and Tuesday and found "enough evidence to show that a crime had been committed in the house," said Paulos, who didn't disclose what it was because of the ongoing investigation.

Paulos said the woman is considered a missing person.

Her husband declined an interview request through the jail.

BLOOD OFTEN POINTS TO HOMICIDE

Tad DiBiase, a former federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., consults with police and prosecutors on "no body" homicides and tallies such trials on his website, www.nobodycases.com. He had counted 378 such cases through mid-December with about an 89 percent conviction rate.

Generally speaking, in the absence of a body, a large amount of blood points to a homicide, DiBiase said.

"Often, it's such a large amount that a forensic pathologist can say losing that amount of blood is inconsistent with living," DiBiase said.

In proving such a case, there are two sides, DiBiase said.

"There is the forensic side that says, 'We know a crime happened here; it looks like there was a struggle; there was so much loss of blood.' " He said that is coupled with more circumstantial evidence that paints a profile of the victim to show she is not someone who would go missing on her own.

In most "no body" homicides, there is not a lot of forensic evidence, DiBiase said. The advent of DNA technology has been the biggest reason why more "no body" homicides are being prosecuted than in the past, he said.

It's also easier to track people electronically now and to show that a missing person has stopped using a cellphone, financial activity has ceased and so on.

Donald Blom admitted to kidnapping and killing convenience store clerk Katie Poirier, who disappeared May 26, 1999, from the Moose Lake, Minn., store where she worked.

In the Trevino case, DiBiase said, the quick arrest might bring more hope that a body will be found. In most "no body" homicides, months or years can pass before an arrest, DiBiase said.

REMAINS, WITNESS, VIDEO WERE ENOUGH

The first successful prosecution of a "no body" homicide in Minnesota came in 2000. Donald Blom, a convicted sex offender, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Katie Poirier, 19, a Moose Lake convenience store clerk kidnapped from her job in 1999.

Carlton County Attorney Thom Pertler, then an assistant county attorney prosecuting the case, presented evidence of a small amount of burned remains on Blom's vacation property 10 miles from Moose Lake. An anthropologist said bone fragments belonged to a young woman, and a dental expert testified the dental remains were human, Pertler said. Poirier recently had dental work that matched a molar found.

During jury selection Pertler was heartened by a prospective juror's response when the defense asked, "Do you think Katie Poirier is really dead?" One responded, "If she's not dead, where is she?"

Circumstantial evidence also linked Blom to the woman, Pertler said. A clerk at a Subway adjoining the store where Poirier worked saw a man lurking outside about an hour before Poirier was kidnapped. She identified Blom as the man in a photo line-up, Pertler said.

Surveillance video from inside the store showed a man who matched Blom's general appearance kidnapping Poirier, Pertler said. The man was wearing a New York Yankees jersey, which matched one Blom had been given by his brother in law.

The Subway clerk also got a license plate of the suspect's vehicle; all the numbers and letters except one matched Blom's truck, Pertler said.

NO BODY A FACTOR IN ACQUITTAL

In the Guevara case, police found Corrine's bloodied sundress, which she was wearing when she disappeared, in Guevara's West St. Paul storage locker. Investigators also found a shower curtain containing blood and semen consistent with DNA characteristics of Corinne and Guevara, a family friend, Backstrom said. A blanket in Guevara's home had blood on it, also consistent with Corrine's DNA characteristics.

A jury acquitted Guevara on all charges; two jurors later told reporters that the absence of a body played a role.

Torres said while there was a lot of evidence, most of it was circumstantial -- it could have had more than one interpretation. The blood and other evidence could have been gotten there three or four different ways, not by Guevara, he said.

"Ultimately, the case turned on the credibility of witnesses," Torres said. "It became apparent that numerous state witnesses had been less than truthful and forthright to law enforcement."